Wednesday letters

Last week, I read the two-part story meant to investigate the rules traditional taxi and limo companies must follow and those applying to ride sharing service Uber. The first was pretty balanced, but the second article was a free ad dedicated to the wonders and coolness of Uber.

Both traditional taxi companies and Uber share the same purpose — transporting people from one place to another. Why shouldn't cab companies and Uber be required to follow the same rules so they compete on a level playing field?

VALERIE MINDLIN

Tallahassee

gr8reader13@gmail.com

Bears should be conserved, not hunted

Opening up bear hunting to control “problem” bears is faulty logic. Hunters will likely be killing bears for sport who are found living in their natural habitat and far from people. After all, hunters usually go into the woods to hunt their victims — not in their own front yards.

A better action plan to keep both people and bears safe would be to educate homeowners on ways to deter wildlife from coming too close to home. People need to secure their trash, stop leaving food items out (including bird seed, for example) and avoid walking their pets after dark. These are just a few ways we can work to keep bear to human interactions at a minimum.

We should be more concerned with conserving the Florida black bear as a native species as it seems there are no reliable population numbers. Hunting bears might push this species to the brink of extinction. Hunting is never part of any rational conservation plan.

PAMALA WILSON

Altamonte Springs

pamalajwilson@gmail.com

City should not ban employees who smoke

Tobacco, although bad for you, is not illegal. So why do the city lawmakers think they have the right to tell workers what they can and can’t do off the clock? Smoke-free work zones are already law.

Then there is misapplied law. If firefighters are tested for nicotine why would police not be? What you do to one you must do to all as far as law goes.

Now they want one more way to cause hardship; a family’s breadwinner may lose their job because they are addicted to nicotine. Why not make drinking alcohol illegal for these employees, too? After all, how productive is a person with a drinking problem or hangover? Where do we draw the line on the infringement of personal freedom? Grown-ups don’t need their elected officials creating behavioral laws like this.

How about focusing on something that will help Tallahassee citizens get healthy instead of penalizing them for not being healthy.